Friant Dam has more water than it can handle. Fresno wants it before it’s lost to ocean

Tim Sheehan
·2 min read
191

After a month of more-than-abundant rainfall and years of drought in Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley, the city of Fresno hopes to have an opportunity to buy discounted water from Millerton Lake that would otherwise flow down the San Joaquin River and be lost to the Pacific Ocean.

Fresno City Council members unanimously voted Thursday to authorize a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to purchase a share of “non-storable flood flows” — excess water that would be released to make room for more rainfall and snowmelt runoff behind Friant Dam — at a discount compared with the city’s normal water allotment from the San Joaquin River.

Brock Buche, director of public utilities for the city, told council members that Fresno has a standing contract for up to 60,000 acre-feet of water each year; the actual amount that the city gets depends on the overall volume of water made available to water contractors.

But in a season of heavy rainfall such as that experienced so far in 2023 and coming off years of drought, the city’s anticipation of non-storable water becoming available from the federal government is based on “more water coming into the dam than (the Bureau of Reclamation) can take advantage of,” Buche said.

Water would be sent to irrigation district, flood control district

While the city relies on surface water from both Millerton Lake and Pine Flat Reservoir to supply a pair of water treatment plants providing water to Fresno homes and businesses, the purchase of excess water from Millerton would be routed to the Fresno Irrigation District and the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District for storage in flood-control and groundwater recharge basins operated by the two agencies.

How much the water would cost is an unknown factor, however. Buche said that in previous years, the cost has been around $10 per acre-foot. An acre-foot is the volume of water necessary to cover one acre of area with one foot of water, or about 326,000 gallons. Buche added that the city’s budget includes about $2 million to cover the cost of purchasing water and for conveyance through canals to deliver it to Fresno.

City Manager Georgeanne White said the federal pricing is dynamic and subject to change. “The Bureau (of Reclamation) sets the price,” she said. “Right now everyone is trying to find a place to put water. … We won’t take more water than we can put (somewhere).”

White added that the city was only recently notified by the federal water agency that excess water is indeed expected to be made available to downstream water contractors such as the city.

Water releases can be seen from Friant Dam at Millerton Lake in Friant where lake levels have reached more than 80 percent-full following several atmospheric river events, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Last year at this time the lake was at 56 percent of capacity.
Water releases can be seen from Friant Dam at Millerton Lake in Friant where lake levels have reached more than 80 percent-full following several atmospheric river events, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Last year at this time the lake was at 56 percent of capacity.
The Historic Millerton Courthouse sits above Millerton Lake in Friant where lake levels have reached more than 80 percent-full following several atmospheric river events, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Last year at this time the lake was at 56 percent of capacity.
The Historic Millerton Courthouse sits above Millerton Lake in Friant where lake levels have reached more than 80 percent-full following several atmospheric river events, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. Last year at this time the lake was at 56 percent of capacity.